In commemoration of the Manaphy we've all grown to love over the last few chapters (or hate, if you're like Emma), I have nicknamed my Manaphy in Explorers of Time Junior.

In other news, I tried to challenge Zero Isle South and made it to the 76th floor before failing miserably ;-;

The next day rolled by and things pretty much went back to normal, well except for Pikachu bawling his eyes out in his. Emma got fed up with him because he was distracting her from her "Stranger Things" binge.

She stomped over to his door and banged on it. "SHUT THE F*CK UP PIKACHU!"

"Oooo! You said a naughty word!" Quagsire accused.

"WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING HERE?" Emma yelled at him. "Shouldn't you be in Peanut Swamp?"

"Nah, that place sucks. Plus the name is misleading. I thought the swamp was going to be full of peanut butter!"

"Ugh, whatever! Just tell Pikachu to shut up! I'm in the middle of a monster fight scene!"

"Okay!" Quagsire knocked on the door. "Hey, Pikachu! Can you shut up?"

Pikachu just continued crying.

"He didn't listen. Whelp! I'm going to use your swimming pool!" Quagsire marched away.

"I should probably tell him that Kyogre used our pool as a toilet but nah."

Pikachu was still crying, which Emma finally got fed up with. She stormed into the room.

"OKAY, STOP CRYING ALREADY!"

Pikachu stopped.

"Cheezits Crispy Crème Donuts! You constantly badmouth me for being a bad leader, but I don't see you getting off your butt and actually doing something."

Pikachu sniffled. "I don't know if I can go on with this rescue team thing if Junior's not here."

"WHAT ABOUT THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS WHERE WE DIDN'T HAVE JUNIOR AT ALL?! Besides, he's only gone until he's old enough to, you know, NOT get sick from being on land. He'll likely come back when he's a teenager or something. Not that I would want him too.

"Maybe you're right. But I just need some time alone today. Maybe you can do something yourself."

Emma's eyes lit up. "For real? No annoying tag-alongs? You're gonna let me do whatever I want by myself?"

Pikachu shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

"Um...okay..." Emma exited out of Pikachu's room and out the building. She began cheering wildly as soon as she got out. "WHOOO YEAH! FINALLY! I HAVE THE WHOLE DAY BY MYSELF! YEAH!"

As "Happy" by Will Pharrell played in the background, Emma began running around the town doing whatever she wanted, such as TP-ing Makuhita's dojo, swindling more Friend Areas from Wigglytuff, burning all the Wonder Mail that requires you to get an item from someone, and replacing all the water in Wishcash's pond with Arby's cheddar cheese. As soon as she was done with her day, she sighed as she relaxed near the cliff.

"Man, it was so relaxing not to have Pikachu as my morality pet."

Just then, she overheard familiar voices near the billboard. She turned her head only to see Medicham and Ekans talking to each other.

"I can't believe we found it at last!" chanted Medicham.

"Yesss, find it we did!"

"Now my wish will finally come true!"

"Mine too!"

"But we must keep this a secret between us and not tell anyone. We especially can't tell Gengar, because he'll just hog up all the wishes for himself."

"Ummm..."

"What?"

"I told my pet gravelrock about it. Is that okay?"

Medicham groaned as she facepalmed.

"About what?" Emma asked as she approached the two evildoers.

"Ummm, nothing!" Ekans quickly retorted.

"Come on, Ekans, this is your first major role in this story. You have the chance to forward the plot."

"Why is it any of YOUR business?" Medicham scoffed. "I'm not going to have you stealing my hubby, and I DEFINITELY won't have you stealing my wishes!"

"What the FLYING MT. PYRE are you talking about?"

"Whatever! We're about done dealing with you, loser!" Ekans hissed. "Let's go."

As they left, Emma twitched her eye in anger. "Oh, so hiding something and not telling me, eh? Well, I'm going to find out ya'lls little secret, you'll see!"

As spy music played, she began sneaking around Pokémon Square hiding behind bushes. She eventually saw Medicham and Ekans again behind a tree and away from all the other Square residents. Ekans also had his pet gravelrock with him. It was attached to a really girly, tacky-looking leash.

"Okay, now that we're away from that boyfriend-stealing Skitty, let's discuss our wishes! I'm going to wish to be together with Pikachu!"

"Medicham has a crush on Pikachu?" Emma snarked. "Okay ew."

"What about you?" Medicham asked her partner.

"I'm going to wish for an infinite stomach so I can eat as much as I want!"

"You're really gross, Ekans. Okay, now let's get ready so we can get through that dungeon and I can finally do some hardcore French kissing with that sexy Pikachu!" Medicham leaves.

"I'll be right back, Snowball! Medicham and I gotta get ready for this dungeon! Hope you behave!" Ekans left as well.

"Okaaay," Emma muttered as she approached the rock. "I thought I would get more information, but of course they have to be as ambiguous as possible! And now after hearing what Medicham said, I have to go home and vomit several times. This stinks."

Just then, to Emma's surprise, Ekan's pet gravelrock sprang to life, revealing arms, eyes, and a mouth. It turned out that Ekan's rock was actually a Geodude. It reacted in disgust as it slipped off the leash.

"Holy crap! Ekan's rock is alive!"

"You're literally a pink cat and yet you're surprised by a rock with arms?" Geodude snarked.

"Good point. I just didn't expect you to be an actual Pokémon."

"Alright, I'll tell you the whole story of why I'm here and I won't kill you for it, as long as you swear not to tell anyone."

"Okay, it'll probably be useless information anyway."

"I'm a member of the Pokémon Intelligence Agency, or PIA for short. I specialize in tracking down criminal activity across the region."

"Sooo...basically you're like those Exploration Team losers in Sinnoh?"

"Yeah, pretty much. I was posing as that crazy snake's pet rock just to spy on him and his friend, since they're part of a gang, though alas, it seems like they haven't done anything really noteworthy. Just stealing candy from babies and egotistically bragging about how much they want to the rule the world. I swear, these two are the worst bad guys ever."

"Tell me about it. So what was that whole thing about wishes they were talking about?"

"Oh, just some dungeon they were planning on going to called Wish Cave. I heard that if you make it towards the end of the dungeon, you'll be granted one wish."

"OH HECK YEAH! Sign me up! Where is it?"

"It's located on a large island south of Pokémon Squa-"

"Whatever, I'll just check Google Maps. Thanks!" Emma left.

"Wait! There's also a catch!"

"I'm sure I can handle it!"

"Man, that cat is even stupider than those villains. I wonder if she actually knows that I'm just some homeless guy who was pretending to be a rock just to live in Ekans' house. Meh."